Mock-UTME and ill-equipped CBT centers

The mock-UTME which was initially postponed by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) finally took place last week Saturday April 29, 2017 across various examination centers in the country. As reported in the media, the Director of Test Administration at JAMB, Yusuf Lawal, described the conduct of the mock-UTME as encouraging. This assessment of the mock-UTME by Lawal is likely to have taken cognizance of all the factors that determine the level of success achieved in the conduct of any particular examination. The factors, physical as well as human, include the candidate(s), invigilators and other examination officials, the test items, and the examination venue.

The unnecessary psychological stress and physical discomfort suffered by some candidates at some Computer-Based Test (CBT) centers in parts of the FCT both justify the need to interrogate Oga Lawal’s remarks. The test items (including their reliability and validity), the manner in which invigilators and other examination officials conducted themselves at examination centers could have all appeared encouraging to Lawal but certainly not the administration of the mock-UTME at some CBT centers. Lawal sounds more like a judge in his own courtroom than a specialist in test administration.

I was regrettably privileged to be at a CBT center in the FCT. Two of my nieces were in my house and needed my help to ease their way to their CBT centers to write the mock-UTME. One was to write hers at the Christ the King College (CKC) at Gwagwalada and the other at Victory International Institute of Theology and Education at Yangoji; some kilometers after Kwali on the Abuja-Lokoja highway. I decided to wait for my niece whom I conveyed to the Victory Institute of Theology until she had written the examination because Yangoji is a remote village. 

Behold! The mock-UTME which was scheduled to take place between 7.00am and 9.00am unfortunately held between 2.00pm and 4.00pm. This was even for the first batch of candidates at this center. As at the time (2.00pm) when the first set of candidates at the Victory Institute were starting the mock-UTME, my niece who had gone to write the examination at CKC in Gwagwalada was done with it and had returned home. The second batch of candidates at the Victory Institute had their mock-UTME between 4.00pm and 6.00pm.

Alternative power supply was the major challenge at the Victory Institute. As at 7.00am when candidates were supposed to have been seated in the examination hall, technicians were seen working on the school generator. Candidates at this venue had to wait patiently until the generator was fixed after several hours. So many questions begged for answers but my lips which remained wide open for a long time (out of shock) were so dry to respond. 

I kept wondering whether proprietors of the Victory Institute knew that an examination which required electricity was due to hold at the time technicians were losing knots and tying bolts on the school generator. One also wondered whether JAMB actually made an assessment of the facilities at this school before approving it as a CBT center. If JAMB claims to have carried out this crucial aspect of venue accreditation, there are clear-cut indications that the process was compromised as would be buttressed in the next paragraph.

When the mock-UTME finally began at this center, most candidates were compelled in the hall to move from one seat to another in search of functional desktop computers. My niece explained to me that the computers provided for them to write the mock-UTME at the Victory Institute were often going off and consequently shutting down. As a desktop shuts down, the candidate using it loses all that he/she had done on that particular system; and was required to begin responding to questions all over again. That is if the desktop he/she moved to did not also go off in the course of answering the questions. My niece further added that desktops at this CBT center got hooked, in most cases, for a long time especially after clicking on an option to answer a question. 

What a tragedy suffered by this set of candidates posted to Victory Institute! This young boys and girls did not hide their displeasure over the choice of JAMB to use Victory Institute as a CBT center. As the candidates came out of the examination hall, their faces were covered with frustrations. If the candidates who wrote their mock-UTME at the Victory Institute had any prayer, it is for JAMB to withdraw the approval granted for this particular ill-equipped school to be a CBT center. Ironically, this is not the first time that an administrative or organizational misfortune of this nature would occur at this CBT center. In 2016, it was the same horrible experience that candidates who wrote their UTME at the school were subjected to. Some of them wrote the 2016 UTME at this center at about 11.00pm. Surprisingly though, Victory Institute is not alone in this quackery, fraudulent and gobbledygook situation.

As we sat at the Victory Institute for our candidates to finish from their mock-UTME, some candidates started arriving in groups. They said they were coming from another CBT center where the mock-UTME could not hold due to problems similar to the challenges at the Victory Institute. These candidates who were already looking fatigued gave the name of their ill-equipped center as Best In Talent School in Gwagwalada, FCT. 

It would be destructive of the future of these young boys and girls if JAMB uses schools that do not have adequate and operational infrastructural facilities as CBT centers for the actual UTME scheduled to hold soon. The Registrar/CEO of JAMB Prof. Is-haq Oloyede must, as a man of commitment and integrity which he is known to be, de-register any examination center that was crookedly accredited without having what it takes to be a CBT center. May Allah (SWT) guide JAMB authorities to protect the interest of UTME candidates in all matters relating to the examination, amin.